Weapons that scale off of Dex can be pretty strong with the right investment, but which one are among the strongest?
Elden Ring offers players a wide variety of customization options when it comes to making builds. But for the most part, a lot of players choose to go melee and focus on increasing either their Strength or Dexterity stats.
Of this group of players who prefer fighting in close quarters, a large portion of them would opt for the faster-paced Dexterity weapons as opposed to slow-hitting Strength weapons. If you’re one of those people, then this list is for you.
Without further ado, here are the top 10 Dexterity weapons you can find in Elden Ring in no particular order:
10. Uchigatana
For something that can be obtained pretty early on in the game, the Uchigatana certainly is a strong Dexterity weapon with the potential to carry you far into the game. It’s an incredibly versatile weapon that can surprisingly hold its own against several late-game weapons without relying on some crazy Ashes of War.
You can upgrade the uchigatana using regular smithing stones, then slap the Seppuku ash of war into it and call it a day. Overall, I really like the uchigatana for how simple yet viable it is with its decent attack speed, good ranged poke, and good running attack.
Uchigatana Stats:
- 115 physical damage
- A scaling in Dexterity with Keen affinity at +25
- Causes blood loss buildup (45)
What Uchigatana Excels In:
- Carry you through the early parts of the game all the way to the late game
- Simple to use yet highly versatile and effective
How to Get an Uchigatana:
Can be obtained as a starting weapon for the Samurai class. Another one can also be looted from a corpse in the Deathtouched Catacombs:
9. Bloodhound’s Fang
If you’ve watched Elden Ring’s first gameplay trailer, then you’d be familiar with this weapon. The Bloodhound’s Fang, which is a curved greatsword, is another amazing Dex weapon you can obtain early on in the game.
Despite belonging to the Curved Greatsword class, this one actually has a faster attack speed than the other curved greatswords in the game. It offers a wide variety of attacks including wide sweeps, airborne attacks, and its unique Ash of War called Bloodhound’s Finesse which allows you to blink in and out of battle while dealing heavy slash damage to your foes.
Additionally, despite being a unique weapon, you can actually apply greases to it for additional damage. Even the Scholar’s Armament sorcery will work on it as well, giving it even higher damage potential.
Bloodhound’s Fang Stats:
- 141 physical damage
- B scaling in Dexterity at +10
- Causes blood loss buildup (55)
What Bloodhound’s Fang Excels In:
- Effortlessly deal with a small group of enemies using its wide swinging moveset
- Deal heavy damage to your targets while avoiding hits at the same time
- Capable of carrying you to the endgame
How to Get a Bloodhound’s Fang:
Dropped by Bloodhound Knight Darriwil on the Forlorn Hound Evergaol in Limgrave:
8. Hookclaws
Hookclaws is a pretty fun weapon you can find early on inside Stormveil Castle. It closely resembles Wolverine’s claws, making it a perfect choice if you’re planning to cosplay as one. That aside, hookclaws are great for landing consecutive hits on your targets, and since it has innate bleed as well, you can proc blood loss on your target after several hits.
The buildup is not as fast as the uchigatana, but you can easily mitigate that by applying the Bloodflame Blade incantation to the weapon.
Hookclaws Stats:
- 89 physical damage
- A scaling in Dexterity with Keen Affinity at +25
- Causes blood loss buildup (60)
What Hookclaws Excels In:
- Deal consecutive hits on your target in a short timeframe
- Decent blood loss buildup which can be improved with buffs
- Comes with the innate Quickstep ash of war
How to Get Hookclaws:
Looted from a corpse inside the Stormveil Castle near the Stormveil Cliffside site of grace:
7. Bloodhound Claws
I would argue that the Bloodhound Claws is a better claw weapon than the Hookclaws for a very simple reason: it goes through shields. In both PVP and PVE scenarios, you will certainly come across an enemy that wields a shield, and in most cases, spamming your attacks on them will only prove to be useless.
With the Bloodhound Claws, however, you don’t have to worry about that at all. Besides, it comes with an innate Bloodhound’s Step ash of war which allows you to dodge faster while turning yourself invisible for a short period.
It also comes with an innate bleed buildup, and the fact that you can buff it with magic and consumables means you can increase its overall damage output. While it has B scaling compared to Hookclaws’ A, it does have higher base damage which allows it to outperform the Hookclaws, albeit just a little.
Bloodhound Claws Stats:
- 94 physical damage
- B scaling in Dexterity with Keen Affinity at +25
- Causes blood loss buildup (60)
What Bloodhound Claws Excels In:
- Penetrate enemies that are hiding behind shields
- Comes with the innate Bloodhound’s Step ash of war
How to Get Bloodhound Claws:
Dropped by a bloodhound knight found inside Volcano Manor’s basement:
6. Godskin Peeler
The twinblades are known for their fast attack speed and amazing moveset, and the Godskin Peeler just happens to be one of the best among them. As a twinblade, it features a fast attack speed and a huge damage output all at once. The best part is that you can hit your target multiple times with just a single normal attack.
If you want to dish out even more damage, your best bet is to dual wield two of these bad boys and start shredding your enemies. You can even take advantage of Seppuku’s blood loss buildup on this weapon, despite it having no innate blood loss effect at all.
Powerstanced, the Godskin Peeler is just an insanely strong weapon that deals massive damage and multiple hits in a single running or jumping attack.
Godskin Peeler Stats:
- 121 physical damage
- A scaling in Dexterity with Keen Affinity at +25
What Godskin Peeler Excels In:
- Deals multiple hits in a single attack with its movesets
- Insane burst damage when powerstanced
- Procs bleed quickly and easily with the Seppuku ash of war
How to Get Godskin Peeler:
Dropped by the Godskin Apostle boss at the top of Windmill Village:
5. Urumi
Whips might not be a popular choice of a weapon in both PVP and PVE situations, but in the hands of someone who’s familiar with their movesets, whips are actually a powerful choice of a Dex weapon. Fast attack speed, decent range, and a long reach – these are what whips have to offer.
The Urumi, in particular, stands out from the rest simply because it’s one of the very few weapons in the game to actually obtain an S scaling. This means that you can get high Attack Rating as possible by investing in Dexterity and changing the weapon’s affinity to Keen.
Unlike the other whips in the game, the Urumi is unique in that it has both slash and thrust damage types. It also has a thrust attack which can potentially throw other players off-guard during PVP. Lastly, the Urumi can easily stagger foes, making it ideal for stunlocking most players and a good number of enemies.
Urumi Stats:
- 101 physical damage
- S scaling in Dexterity with Keen Affinity at +25
- Slash/thrust attack
What Urumi Excels In:
- Catch PVP enemies off-guard with its thrust attack
- Gets S scaling with the Keen affinity for higher damage potential
- Its 2-hit charged heavy attack is really good for PVP
How to Get Urumi:
Looted from a body on the southeast ramparts in Caria Manor:
4. Black Knife
As the weapon used by the Black Knife Assassins to assassinate both Godwyn and Ranni, the Black Knife certainly lives up to its tale. As a Dexterity weapon that also scales off of Faith, the Black Knife features a unique Ash of War where you fire a blade-like projectile that reduces your target’s maximum HP and deals continuous damage over time.
What makes this insanely powerful in PVE situations is that since bosses generally have a large health pool, just a single application of its ash of war allows you to take a huge chunk off their health. It also reduces your target’s HP by 10% for 15 seconds, making boss fights a lot faster and easier.
You can pair it with the Black Knife Tiche summon and watch as bosses get melted pretty quickly.
Black Knife Stats:
- 66 physical damage
- B scaling in Dexterity at +10
What Black Knife Excels In:
- Melt bosses in seconds
- Temporarily reduce your target’s maximum HP for an easier kill
How to Get Black Knife:
Dropped by a Black Knife Assassin near Sainted Hero’s Grave’s entrance:
3. Vyke’s War Spear
Despite being a great spear, Vyke’s War Spear actually has a faster moveset compared to other weapons of similar class. It’s capable of doing quick jabs, thrusts, and swipes in a way that’s comparable to the smaller spears.
What makes it an excellent Dex weapon, however, is that it’s the only weapon in the game that has the innate madness buildup. If you’re not aware, the Madness status causes your target to take 100+15% of their max HP and 30+10% of their max FP. What’s even better is that once madness procs, your target will be stunned for a few seconds, allowing you to get a few more hits in.
The only caveat, however, is that madness only works on tarnished characters, which are sadly just a few NPCs in-game and players in general. It does shine in PVP since a lot of players don’t even bother increasing their Focus which is an attribute capable of slowing down madness buildup.
Lastly, its Frenzyflame Thrust ash of war deals damage in a wide area and can even one-shot players unlucky enough to get hit by the full attack. What’s even crazier is that your target will still suffer from madness buildup even if he has iframes while rolling through the flames on the ground.
Vyke’s War Spear Stats:
- 103 physical damage
- 66 fire damage
- B scaling in Dexterity at +10
- Causes madness buildup (65)
What Vyke’s War Spear Excels In:
- Insane madness buildup with its ash of war
- The only reliable way of inflicting madness on melee attacks
- Fast moveset despite being a great spear
How to Get Vyke’s War Spear:
Dropped by Festering Fingerprint Vyke near the Church of Inhibition:
2. Hand of Malenia
I can’t really talk about the best Dex weapons in Elden Ring without mentioning Malenia’s katana, the Hand of Malenia. It has the standard moveset of a katana but with a longer reach than the uchigatana. However, it has a way higher Dexterity requirement of 48, making it a really solid choice for builds that focus on leveling up Dexterity.
What makes this weapon cool, aside from the fact that you can obtain it from Malenia’s remembrance, who happens to be one of the most difficult bosses in the entirety of FROMSoftware games, is the fact that it comes with a really cool and flashy ash of war.
If you’re a fan of anime fights, you’ll surely love the flashy and anime-esque design of the weapon’s ash of war known as Waterfowl Dance. Basically, it involves unleashing a series of blade slashes that could take down a large group of enemies in seconds. It can even shred bosses with ease.
Assuming that you’ve fought Malenia already, then you’ve already witnessed how devastating that skill is. And even if you don’t end up using this weapon for PVP fights, you can just equip it as a trophy showing that you’ve managed to take down one of the hardest bosses in the game.
Hand of Malenia Stats:
- 117 physical damage
- B scaling in Dexterity at +10
- Causes blood buildup (65)
What Hand of Malenia Excels In:
- Amazing ash of war that deals a ton of damage in a wide area
- Can quickly deal with a group of enemies
How to Get Hand of Malenia:
Defeat Malenia and trade the Remembrance of the Rot Goddess at the Roundtable Hold:
1. Rivers of Blood
Despite saying this list is in no particular order, I specifically placed Rivers of Blood in number 1 simply because it’s by far the best Dex weapon in the game as of now. It doesn’t even need heavy investment in Dexterity to be viable. Instead, you’re better off focusing on increasing your Arcane stat to maximize this weapon’s damage potential.
It still scales primarily off of Dex, with B scaling at +10, but leveling up Arcane allows you to increase its blood loss buildup which, in turn, makes the weapon even more powerful as a whole. The main reason for this lies in its ash of war, the Corpse Piler.
Basically, its ash of war involves a series of slash attacks that have a decent reach and insane blood loss buildup. This means you’ll be able to proc blood loss on your target several times throughout the duration of the ash of war.
It’s for this same reason why it’s the current meta in both PVP and PVE. Pretty sure it will suffer from a nerf later on, and blood loss, in general, might get it as well. But for now, it’s just among the strongest weapons in the game despite how simple and easy it is to use.
Rivers of Blood Stats:
- 76 physical damage
- 76 fire damage
- B scaling in Dexterity at +10
- Causes blood buildup (30)
What Rivers of Blood Excels In:
- Insane damage and blood loss buildup via its ash of war
- Spammable ash of war, thanks to its very low FP cost
- Fairly easy to use but very efficient
- Shreds bosses and players in seconds
How to Get Rivers of Blood:
Dropped by Bloody Finger Okina who invades you near the Church of Repose:
